Kaigakan Meiji Memorial Picture Gallery
Meiji Memorial Picture Gallery - Kaigakan 聖徳記念絵画館
Kaigakan Meiji Memorial Picture Gallery, Kasumigaoka, Shinjuku ward, Tokyo.
The Meiji Memorial Picture Gallery ("Kaigakan") is a permanent-exhibition art gallery and museum in the Meiji Jingu Gaien area of Shinjuku ward, Tokyo. It is called Seitoku Kinen Kaigakan in Japanese, or the "Memorial Picture Gallery of the Son of Heaven's Virtue," and is dedicated to the memory of the so-called "Son of Heaven," the Emperor Meiji (1852-1912). It exhibits 80 realist paintings portraying important events during the Emperor's reign (1867-1912), as well as some memorabilia relating to Emperor Meiji himself.
History
The reign of the Emperor Meiji is known as the Meiji Era in Japan, and is the most significant period of history for modern Japan. The nation entered the period isolated, agrarian and feudal, presided over by a warlord, and ended it as a modern militarized industrial parliamentary state that defeated one of the great Western powers.
The Kaigakan gallery was built in 1926, specifically for its current purpose. It stands where the Meiji Emperor's funeral took place. It is administered by the Meiji Shrine, which was built six years before the Kaigakan, also for the purpose of venerating the late emperor.
The Kaigakan is a grand, spacious building, and features a central 15-meter diameter dome, 32 meters at its peak. Inside is cathedral-like in its spaciousness, with some stained glass and marble floors.
Kaigakan Meiji Memorial Picture Gallery, Kasumigaoka, Shinjuku ward, Tokyo.
Kaigakan Door, Kasumigaoka, Shinjuku ward, Tokyo.
Exhibits
The Kaigakan's art exhibit is permanent, with 80 large realist paintings depicting major events (referred to as the emperor's "achievements") of the Meiji era. Forty of the paintings are Japanese-style (Nihonga) and forty are Western-style (yohga). Each painting has an informative caption, with English translation. Ignoring the often propagandist tone, the visitor can get from this boldly illustrated commentary a clear and memorable overview of milestones on Japan's path to modernization.
A small side room contains the skeleton and a stuffed model of the Emperor Meiji's horse, and some miscellaneous memorabilia.
Stained glass window in the foyer of the Kaigakan Meiji Memorial Picture Gallery
Kaigakan Hours and Admission
The Kaigakan is open every day of the week from 9 am to 5 pm, last entry 4:30 pm.
From December 30 to January 2 it is open from 10 am to 5 pm, last entry 4:30 pm.
But check ahead, as it may be closed on certain days.
500 yen "donation" to enter.
Photography not permitted.
Kaigakan Meiji Memorial Picture Gallery
Kaigakan Access
The Kaigakan is in the Kasumigaoka district of Shinjuku ward, Tokyo, and is accessible from four stations:
Kokuritsu-kyogijo Station
Kokuritsu-kyogijo Station is on the Oedo Subway Line. Turn left out of Exit A1 and just after the intersection you will see an opening in the fence across the road. This is a pedestrian entrance to the Kaigakan. 3 minutes.
Shinanomachi Station
Shinanomachi Station is on the JR Chuo Line. Take the nearby pedestrian overbridge across Route 319, go down the overbridge stairs to your right then through the small park. Follow Route 414 to your left once you're through and follow it to the left. Cross when you get to the children's Niko-Niko Park playground, and enter the Kaigakan grounds. 5 minutes.
Aoyama-Itchome Station
Aoyama-Itchome Station is on the Oedo Subway Line, Hanzomon Subway Line and the Ginza Subway Line. From Exit 1, walk about 250 meters, turn right up Icho-namiki Avenue (lined with gingko trees). 14 minutes - which is much longer than from the above stations, but the Meiji Gaien Gingko Avenue approach is the "classic" one that best showcases the Kaigakan from afar.
Gaienmae Station
Gaienmae Station is on the Ginza Subway Line. Turn left out of Exit 4a and go about 175 meters. turn left and walk along Icho-namiki Avenue (lined with gingko trees). The Kaigakan is at the end.
Near the Kaigakan
The following attractions are within walking distance of the Kaikagan.
Meiji Gaien Gingko Avenue (Itcho Namiki) is a famous vista of gingko trees that make for a particularly striking spectacle in fall. This road stretches 400 meters from the fountain in front of the Kaigakan down to Aoyama-dori Avenue. The Royal Garden Cafe Aoyama is at its Aoyama-dori Avenue end.
The Japan National Stadium is just west of the Kaigakan. To the Stadium's west is the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium and to its south is the Meiji Jingu Stadium.
The Meiji Jingu Ice Skating Rink is just north-west of the Kaigakan.
Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden is a huge park just north-west of the Kaigakan.
Geihinkan / Akasaka Palace is about 20 minutes' walk east of the Kaigakan.
The Soka Gakkai Headquarters is a little north of the Kaigakan.
Accommodation
The Nihon Seinenkan Hotel is 5 minutes walk south-west of the Kaigakan, and is a superbly located, spotlessly clean, quiet, comfortable hotel with an abundance of in-room and in-hotel facilities for guests, including laundry facilities. Walking distance to Omotesando and Harajuku. Each rooms includes a bathroom, but there is also a gender-separate traditional-style Japanese bath facility available on the 10th floor.
Statues in front of the Kaigakan Meiji Memorial Picture Gallery, near Meiji Jingumae
Where to Stay in Tokyo
Books on Japan
The Meiji Memorial Picture Gallery, or Kaigakan, is a grandly designed old gallery in Kasumigaoka, Shinjuku, Tokyo, that offers a quaintly propagandist, but memorable, pictorial narrative of the modernizing Meiji era of Japanese history.
